


The Unbreakable Lena Stark

by thorsdottir



Series: Lena Stark OC [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Biracial Character, Black Character(s), F/M, Interracial Relationship, Ironheart, M/M, Major Original Character(s), Reboot, Superheroes, You're Wrong About (Podcast), not really Ironheart
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 05:22:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29255166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thorsdottir/pseuds/thorsdottir
Summary: When Lena Owens discovers that Tony Stark is her biological father, it seemed to good to be true.Five years later, she thought she'd lost him to the Mad Titan. Five years after that, she lost him for good.Picking up the pieces after the Blip, Lena and the remaining Avengers try to re-establish hope on a broken world, but Lena isn't so sure she believes in hope, herself, anymore. When she finally gets to know Bucky Barnes, the mysterious man who she knows as the person who killed her grandparents, her world is shaken once again. Lena finds herself struggling to uphold her father's legacy without ignoring who she wants to be.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Original Female Character(s), Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Series: Lena Stark OC [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2148207
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Invention of Home](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14472987) by [thorsdottir](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thorsdottir/pseuds/thorsdottir). 



> So, I was writing a wonderful fic called The Invention of Home about Tony Stark's long lost biracial daughter Lena Owens Stark (my OC) coming to live with him and becoming Ironheart and working with the Avengers, and then falling in love with Bucky after Infinity War, but then Endgame happened and kind of blew up my spot. So, this will kind of be a reboot of that idea but in the aftermath of Endgame. Let's hope WandaVision/Falcon & Winter Soldier don't blow up my spot too much. But as long as it's not a big "5 years later" type thing I think I'll be fine. Cheers!

2023

Lena shot up in her bed, sweat beading on her brow, her chest heavy with anxiety. It was warm in the new, temporary home for the Avengers, an old SHIELD outpost that her dad had shortlisted as a replacement facility given the event that the Upstate facility was out of commission. Tony always expected the worst and planned several steps ahead, but this old SHIELD outpost was, well, old. It looked like it hadn’t really been updated since the 80s, and the window in the room she’d chosen didn’t close all the way, allowing the warm air of the early summer to seep in. It wasn't a super hot day, but the air conditioning was ancient and working double time to cool her small room.

It didn’t really feel like an Avengers facility. Not the ones she was used to. For one thing, the team didn’t really hang around as much, anymore. Rhodey checked on her, mostly. And Bruce came in every now and then, busying himself with projects and trying to cheer her up with jokes. But it didn’t really matter. Her dad was dead.

Her dad was dead, and even though she pretended it didn’t bother her, everyone knew she wasn’t okay. She wasn’t the same girl they knew, smart and headstrong, adventurous and heroic and as sarcastic as Tony was. She was just… distant. She hadn’t told anyone about the nightmares. 

Every night in her sleep, she saw her father snapping his fingers, the power of the Infinity Stones surging through his body. Every night, she saw him sitting there, a shell of himself, unable to speak as he drew his last breaths. Usually, when she’d startle awake from the dream, she would be battling an endless panic attack, screaming, crying, shaking. At least she’d gotten past that part of it. It had only been a few weeks since his funeral. Lena wasn’t sure how long it was supposed to take to mourn.

She couldn’t face Pepper. Not really. Or Morgan, for that matter. Somehow, looking at her little sister only made her heart ache more. She knew logically she was supposed to be the strong one. She wanted to be the big sister Morgan deserved. She wanted to teach her how to move on while still keeping their father in her heart. But she didn’t have anything for Morgan. Every time she saw her, she could do nothing but stare at her. It was her eyes. She had Tony’s eyes.

She stayed away, because she didn’t want to burden them with her grief. And maybe in some way, she didn’t think she deserved to feel the way she felt as much as they did. Morgan had lived with Tony her entire life. Lena only met him when she was nineteen.

It was already one in the afternoon, when Lena shot awake. She hadn’t gotten to sleep, that night, and by the time she was actually able to get some rest, it was nearly 6 AM. Sleepless nights were becoming a pattern Lena wasn’t used to. She’d had plenty, back when Tony was lost in the vast nothingness of space, but at that time, she trusted that he’d be back. She worked tirelessly in the lab, trying to figure out a way to contact him, trying to find his coordinates. She hadn’t expected the alien girl to fly him home. Nebula. She wasn’t the nicest thing in the world, but she was trying. Lena hated, now, how jealous she had been of Tony’s kindness towards the bald, blue girl, more machine than person, more child than adult. It was selfish of her. Tony just had a big heart, and a soft spot for broken people. Even Lena had been somewhat of a broken person when they finally met; rebellious and angry at the world for the death of her mother. 

Now she’d lost both of her parents. She wiped the sweat from her brow and let out a sharp huff. One in the afternoon, and she’d done nothing, today, but sleep. Pepper had told her, the day of her father’s funeral, to stop beating herself up about stuff like that. To let herself mourn and heal without feeling the need to be endlessly productive. She was trying, but honestly, it was hard. She had Tony’s work ethic… somewhere in there. She had his work ethic, but the last few weeks, she couldn’t find the ability to work on anything. She felt like a loser, now. A B-string Avenger who couldn’t even save her own father. A “genius” who couldn’t even figure out her next project.

The tiled floor was cold against her bare feet; a welcome sensation reminding her that she was still alive. She shuffled out of the room into the empty hallway, lined with doors to rooms where nobody slept. So much for the Avengers; if you could even call them that, anymore. She walked down the long, clinical hallway and pressed the down button on the wall beside the elevator at the end of it. There was a kitchen and mess hall on the lower level. She would eat and then probably binge something on Netflix.

“Reminder to get out of bed.” Lena looked at her phone as it buzzed. She sighed, swiping the reminder away. She was trying. This was trying.

The kitchen was stocked, which was nice. Rhodey always made sure that it was, especially because he knew Lena wasn’t in the headspace to consider food. She opened the big, stainless steel industrial refrigerator and pulled out the bottle of oat milk Rhodey had bought for her and made a face. She hated oat milk, but Bruce had made a big deal about how bad almond milk was for the environment, and he’d convinced her to make the switch. Cereal for breakfast. Or lunch, or whatever this meal was. She found a glass bowl and poured some Raisin Bran into the bowl, making a mental note to remind Rhodey that she wanted Lucky Charms and it wasn’t up for debate. Then she sat on the counter and ate. 

She could have gone back to her apartment. She didn’t want to. It had so much of Tony in it. His tech. His style. She emulated him so much that the place was practically the church that Tony built. Somehow, the coldness and simplicity of this old SHIELD facility felt better. More neutral. And every little thing didn’t stand as a reference to her dead father. Well, except the portrait of her dead grandfather on the main level, but she didn’t go to the main level. 

Her cell phone buzzed again, and she glanced at the screen. A text from Peter Parker. She stared at it, at first. She had kind of been avoiding talking to Peter, too. Tony’s kids, she called him. Him and Harley. She unlocked her screen and read the message.

“Hey. You good?” was all the kid wrote.

“Yep,” she quickly typed, and hit send. She didn’t want any of them to worry about her. She felt like everyone was worried about her. The text thread updated, and Peter had sent her a gif of Han Solo hugging General Leia. She smiled a little. Peter was such a nerd. She missed his energy, sometimes, although it did seem like they were both kind of avoiding seeing each other. 

She wasn’t sure she’d know what to say to him, anyway. She liked the message, and finished her bowl of cereal, turning on a podcast to drown out the silence.

_“Welcome to You’re Wrong About, the podcast that flies headfirst into the wormhole that is history.” “I like the imagery of history being this sort of gaping hole that’s threatening to swallow everything up if we don’t investigate it further” “Yeah. In that way, we’re sort of like our own team of heroes, battling historical misconceptions.” “And all sorts of moral panics, which society is so good at inventing.” “Society is good at coming up with reasons to be morally outraged.” *laughs*_

_“I’m Michael Hobbs, I’m a reporter for the Huffington Post.”_

_“And I’m Sarah Marshall, I’m working on a book about the Satanic Panic”_

_“And today, we’re talking about the Battle of New York, the event that sort of started the Avengers, and the anti-powered people movement that sort of sprang from it.”_

_“Oooh,”_

_“So, tell me what you know about the Battle of New York.”_

_“Yeah. It’s the thing when the aliens came through the big wormhole in the sky over Manhattan and nearly destroyed the world.”_

_“Right. Well, there’s more to it than that, but yes. As you know, it’s one of the bigger events in recent times that shaped human history, and was sort of a precursor to what eventually came to be known as the Blip.”_

_“Yikes.”_

_“Some people blame the Avengers for all of this, but a lot of people don’t actually realize what happened that day, and the events leading up to it.”_

_“So, you’re going to talk about, sort of, how the anti-Avengers crowd got it wrong.”_

_“Yeah, but not only did they get it wrong; they were purposefully manipulated to get it wrong, because there’s no incentive for world governments to have a team of independent heroes working outside of their--”_

Lena frowned, pressing pause on her favorite history podcast. Usually, they were investigating interesting historical events like the Stanford Prison Experiment. Sometimes Lena forgot that her father was involved in some of the biggest events in modern history. That she was, herself. It was hard to escape her reality, these days. Everyone was talking about the Blip. About the people who’d come back from the Blip. About the lost Avengers, and how they’d saved the world once again. And worst of all, the conspiracy theories that they’d really been the ones to destroy it in the first place. That, somehow, they were sinister. Even though Michael Hobbs seemed like he was planning to debunk those conspiracy theories, she didn’t have the stomach to listen to them, again.

She hopped down from the counter, put her bowl in the sink, grabbed her phone and shuffled back to the elevator. 

  
  


“Lena Stark. Report to the mess hall for immediate inspection,” Lena looked up from her book as Rhodey’s voice echoed through every loudspeaker in the facility. She perked an eyebrow, confused about what he could possibly want. There was no inspection. There was barely an Avengers, anymore, and nobody had been pushing her to train, to design tech, or anything. In fact, that’s why she’d opted to stay at the facility. She was alone. Nobody would bother her, there. She stared at the intercom speaker on the wall in her room; very 80s, not the updated Stark intercom system they had at the Avengers Facility, which was now nothing more than rubble in a crater upstate.

“Lena Stark. Report to the mess hall for immediate inspection. I repeat. Report to the mess hall for immediate inspection. Your presence is required, not requested,” Rhodey’s voice said again. Lena sighed. He was trying to be fun, or something, but he was failing.

“Come on, Lena. We all came to this janky ass facility to see you,” another voice came through. Lena perked up. It sounded like Sam Wilson. She slipped her feet into her Nike slides and glanced at the mirror on her wall, pushing her messy curls back with her hands, trying to figure out how to make herself look more like she gave a fuck. She hadn’t showered in two days, but she didn’t want them to know that. Whoever they were. She had no way of knowing which of the team had come to see her, but she didn’t want to hear the concern in their voices or see the worry in their eyes. She quickly brushed her wild, curly hair into a terrible messy bun, frowned, and then stuck on a Nike headband to make it look less insane. Then, she pulled her Avengers jacket out of the pile of crumpled clothes on her floor and stuck it on. Her black leggings looked fine with the blue jacket and the grey tank she wore under it; braless because bras were for people who cared about how their boobs looked. And she made her way down the hall to the elevator.

“Lena Stark. Please come down to level two,” Rhodey’s voice rang out, again. “Please? Everyone wants to see you.” Lena rolled her eyes as she stepped into the elevator.

“I’m coming, you ding dong,” she muttered under her breath, the doors closing behind her. 

When she stepped off of the elevator, everyone yelled “surprise” and Lena stood in front of the elevator with a startled look on her face. Oh. Right. It was her birthday. 29. She was 29, now. There were balloons. And Rhodey. And Happy. And Bruce. And Pepper and Morgan. And Clint. And Sam. And the guy Cap always seemed to be going to bat for, Bucky Barnes. Lena managed a half smile, if only for Morgan’s sake, and she noted the stark lack of Wanda. 

“Happy birthday, kid,” Rhodey smiled, walking towards her with a bundle of pink, blue, and red balloons. She frowned a little at the colors. Iron Man, Rescue and Ironheart. She thought maybe that’s not what Rhodey meant by the balloon colors, but it’s all she could think. She kind of never wanted to be Ironheart again. 

“Thanks, Rhodey,” she said evenly, hugging him back when he hugged her.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, that concerned look in his eye that she was hoping to avoid. She shook her head, giving him a half smile, and she walked past him, holding out her arms to Morgan.

“Well, get over here, Munchkin,” she said cheerfully, for the kid’s sake. Morgan ran to her arms, and Lena scooped her up, kissing her cheek and hugging her tight. She felt that pang in her heart, Morgan’s tiny face reminding her of her dad, but she held it together. “I missed you, kiddo.”

“I made you a card!” Morgan announced cheerfully. Lena chuckled, smiling sweetly at her baby sister.

“Aww. Thanks, Munchkin. I bet it’s the best card ever,” she said, carrying Morgan as she walked over to the group of remaining Avengers and her stepmom. “Thanks, guys…” she said, letting Pepper hug her and kiss her cheek.

“How are you? You look thin,” Pepper asked worriedly. Lena shook her head, so Pepper changed the subject. “We brought you a cake. Marble, just like you like.”

“Oh,” Lena muttered, glancing at the cake on the counter behind the crew. 

“Man, this place reminds me of a high school cafeteria,” Sam mentioned. “You like living here by yourself?”

“I mean, nothing’s stopping you guys from moving in. We’re still the Avengers, right?” she looked over the team. They all kind of smiled awkwardly. “Look, I’m working on the upgrades. Dad’s designs… um…” Lena cleared her throat, her eyes faltering. 

“Tony had a plan in place. It’s not something you need to concern yourself with right now, Lena,” Happy told her gently.

“No, no… I want to,” she insisted, putting on the role of the confident, defiant girl she used to be. “I just need some time, and it’ll be up to par with the old facility.”

“Lena. You don’t have to spend your time working on this old place. Really, it’s not worth it,” Bruce commented. Lena shot him a look; he knew better than anyone that she wasn’t working on anything. She just didn’t want anyone else to know that. “What? I’m just saying you’re in mourning. We all are.”

“I’m fine,” she said, sharper than intended. Sam and Clint gave her empathetic smiles that made her feel ashamed, so she shifted Morgan on her hip and walked over to the cake, smiling at her little sister. “Wow, this is such a pretty cake! Did you pick it out with Mommy?”

“I chose the pink flowers,” Morgan said.

“Aww, that’s nice. I like pink.”

“Yeah. Pink is for Ironheart, right Lena?” Morgan asked. Lena just smiled. She didn’t know if that was true, anymore. “Can we eat some, now?”

“Of course we can,” Lena said, placing Morgan down on her feet and going to the drawer where most of the utensils were.

“Don’t you want us to sing ‘Happy Birthday’?” Clint asked.

“Nooo, please don’t sing, guys,” Lena chuckled, finding a big knife and going back to the cake.

“You have to let us sing. You don’t know, girl, my voice is like smooth silk,” Sam joked. 

“Somehow, I doubt that, Wilson,” Clint retorted.

“Yeah, I’m with Lena. Please don’t sing,” Happy commented.

“Just because you released a soft rock album a decade ago don’t mean you’re the only one with a good voice, Clint,” Sam insisted. Clint blushed, perking a brow at Sam.

“I told you to never bring that up, again,” he said.

“Wait… Clint, you have a soft rock album out?” Lena asked, giggling genuinely for the first time in a while.

“No. I mean, yes, but it’s not a ‘soft rock’ album. It’s just, I dunno…”

“It’s actually not that bad,” Bucky mentioned; Clint seemed surprised that he’d even heard it. “He’s got a pretty good voice.”

“Yeah, but not better than mine,” Sam insisted.

“Everyone’s voice is better than yours,” Bucky said. Lena eyed Bucky. She didn’t really know him well. He’d been blipped five years ago, when Thanos first snapped his fingers. Before that, the extent of what she knew about him was that he’d killed her grandparents and was on the run with Cap. They’d all fought against the genocidal maniac together, for the good of humanity-- well, the universe-- and in the five years since, Cap had sort of made him sound like he wasn’t so bad. But she wasn’t sure what to think. She knew his back story a bit more, now, but her father had never really warmed on the idea of him. He was handsome, and had these deep, mysterious blue eyes that seemed to hold a lifetime of secrets, but Lena hadn’t really had time to get to know the man behind those eyes. Everyone seemed to have accepted him, in some way. Lena wasn’t sure if she could.

“Everyone’s voice _is_ better than yours, Sam,” Bruce agreed, his green fingers scratching his head casually. It was still funny to see him like this. Permanently Hulked, but still himself. He felt more confident this way, Lena could tell, but it was still something that she hadn’t quite gotten used to. 

“Man, y’all a bunch of haters,” Sam grumbled.

“Where’s Wanda?” Lena asked, cutting a slice of the cake, and swiping a dab of frosting with her finger, licking it off.

“Nobody knows,” Sam replied, shrugging.

“Radio silence. I tried to contact her. I know you two were close,” Rhodey said. Lena frowned. She hated past tense verbs, and Rhodey knew that. It felt like everything was in the past, now. Everything good about her life.

“We ARE close, Rhodey. Not ‘were’,” Lena said sharply, giving the first slice of cake to Morgan. 

“Right. That’s what I meant,” he corrected himself. 

“I’m sure she’ll turn up. She was really broken up that Vision couldn’t be brought back,” Pepper mentioned, biting her lip a little, the thought of Vision reminding her of Tony. Lena could see in her face how she felt. She smiled softly at her.

“Yeah. I know…” she said softly. “I’ll try to call her.”

“... Anyway, it’s your birthday, kid,” Clint interjected, trying his best to sound cheerful and upbeat. Lena smiled awkwardly, cutting another slice of cake. “So, you got us all here. What do you want to do?” She looked around the room at her Avengers family. Tony was gone, but he brought her all of these people. Before she got to know her father, she had basically no one. He was gone, but he’d built this, and now she had a family. That was good.

“I know what I want to do,” she smirked. Everyone looked a little confused, maybe even slightly terrified. Everyone except Rhodey, who looked exhausted, as if he knew what she was going to say.

“Lena. No,” he started, but before he could get out an objection, she was already saying it.

“Paintball.”

  
  


“Why is it bad that Lena wants to play paintball?” Bucky asked Sam as they walked out of the old men’s locker room, covered in tactical gear and holding some of the most advanced paintball guns Bucky had ever seen. Sam gave him a confused shrug.

“I dunno, maybe he’s worried about the clean up.”

Rhodey, waiting for them as they emerged with Clint lingering behind them, shook his head, overhearing their conversation. 

“No,” he said. “It’s because Lena takes it too far.”

“She’s one of the most competitive people I’ve ever seen,” Clint agreed, nodding as he checked his crossbow, his quiver filled with special arrows tipped with exploding paint beads instead of arrowheads. The team had used paintball as a tactical exercise a few times, years ago when Lena had first come to live with Tony. After a couple of games, Lena had figured out all of their weaknesses and had become a sort of paintball sniper, “killing” every Avenger she could find with excessive glee. Since that game, they’d never used paintball again. Bucky shrugged, not really understanding how one could take a game too far.

“It’s her birthday. We should play what she wants,” he said casually.

“Thank you, Barnes,” Lena said, emerging from the women’s locker room with Pepper, both decked out in black tac gear and strapped with paintball guns. She smiled at the man she didn’t know well, and he nodded at her. “There aren’t enough of us to do women vs men. And Bruce, Happy, and Morgan are sitting this one out, so Pepper and I will be team captains and just pick from you fine gentleman. Cool?”

“You’re the boss, Stark Jr,” Sam said, shrugging. “But I’m just saying. I’m Captain America, now, so you should pick me.”

“You don’t get to tell her who to pick,” Bucky argued quietly. Lena chuckled a little. This was fun. She needed the distraction. 

“Pep, you pick first,” Lena offered, and Pepper glanced at her. She looked a little like she hadn’t been paying attention, and Lena tried not to give her the same type of concerned look that everyone used on her, these days. Pepper was probably tired of it, too. “I was saying you should pick your first teammate.”

“Oh…” Pepper smiled a little, and she looked at the men. “I’ll take Rhodey. Old friends make the best teammates.”

“Good choice, if I do say so myself,” Rhodey strutted confidently to Pepper’s side. She chuckled.

“Well, I was choosing you out of pity. I mean, you’re getting old.”

“I’m getting old? That dude’s over 100!” he fussed, pointing at Bucky. Pepper chuckled.

“Face it, James, we’re outmoded. Accept it,” she teased.

“Yeah, whatever. I’ll show you who’s outmoded,” Rhodey grumbled. Lena and Pepper shot each other amused looks, and Lena looked over the guys to see who was left.

“Um… I’ll take Clint. He don’t miss,” Lena said.

“CLINT? That’s cold, Lena! You really gonna leave me hangin’ like this?” Sam complained. Lena laughed, and Clint smirked at Sam as he strutted over to Lena proudly. He held up his fist for a fist bump, and Lena obliged, smiling at him.

“I knew I always liked you, Stark Jr,” Clint said playfully.

“Fine. I’m going to Pepper, then,” Sam announced loudly, walking towards Pepper without waiting for her to choose.

“You don’t get to decide that. Pepper does,” Rhodey said sharply.

“She ain’t gonna pick Bucky. Tony hated him,” Sam said matter-of-factly. Lena and Pepper both frowned at that statement, which Sam immediately noticed. He pulled back on the humor a little, his eyes apologetic. “I’m sorry… that was too far.”

“No, it’s true, he did,” Pepper said casually, beckoning Sam over. “But that’s not why I’m choosing you. It’s because I think you give us a strategic advantage, since they have Hawkeye.”

“No, he doesn’t, Ma. He doesn’t get to use his wings,” Lena objected. 

“Ah ah ah! You made no such rule before we started, so I say he does,” Pepper smirked. “Especially if Clint gets to use his arrows.”

“And a goddamn crossbow,” Rhodey added. 

“Fine,” Lena grumbled, crossing her arms. Her eyes landed on Bucky, who was staring at her. His blue eyes boring into her in such a way it made her heart skip. It was sort of unnerving, the way he stared almost into your soul. It was unnerving, but she also couldn’t look away. “Um…” she cleared her throat, her eyes faltering. “Um, yeah, come on, Barnes.” Bucky nodded a little, and he walked slowly over to her and Clint as if he thought she must hate him, too. The way her father did. 

“Alright. So, we got our teams. What’s the rules of engagement?” Clint asked, much to Lena’s delight. This was the most fun she’d had in a while. For the five years that everyone was vanished, there’d been a somber attitude among the team. Everything was focused on defeating Thanos, on bringing everyone back, on finding some kind of solution for what happened. Then, they lost Nat and Tony and Steve. When she first put on her reverse engineered Iron Man suit a decade before, she’d imagined being a superhero would be fun. She saw the “villain of the week” cartoon version of this job in her head; thwart a bunch of bad guys, save the day, gain the respect of the citizens. The reality was that she’d spent her entire twenties experiencing trauma after trauma, non stop. In some ways, she even envied those who had been vanished in the blip. She would have gotten to miss the horrible past five years. She would have gotten a do-over of her 20s. She maybe would have gotten to choose something else.

But in her heart of hearts, this was who she was. She was a brilliant tactician, a fighter and a hero by blood. At least in a game of paintball, she could just do it for fun. Nobody would get hurt. Nothing would be on the line, except maybe Sam Wilson’s ego.

“The rules are that the game can only be played inside the building. Each team will get a home base and will strategically seek out and destroy the enemy. One hit means you’re dead, no revivals. Happy, Bruce and Morgan are neutral parties and cannot be used as allies or spies. That goes for you, too, Pepper. Morgan is not your spy, so don’t try it. I know you think I have a soft spot for her. It won’t work. No shots to the face or the groin. Other than that, there are no rules. We each have five minutes to choose our base and come up with a plan. The game. Starts. NOW!"


	2. Flashback: The Invention of Home - The Girl in the Iron Mask

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the first chapter from the original story, for back story.

2013

“Mr. Stark?” Tony couldn’t quite believe his eyes. It was a person in an Iron Man-like suit, much like the many iterations he’d designed and built over the past 5 years. The person, in the suit very much like his own, landed at the balcony of Avengers Tower, the repulsors turning off as the metal of the suit clinked against the floor of the balcony. The voice was feminine, and the suit, which mimicked his, seemed to function much the same way an Iron Man suit would. Jarvis had alerted Tony to the presence of the unidentified object that was headed towards Avengers Tower, so Tony suited up and was ready for whatever battle he was about to face. But the voice caught him off guard. Okay, Tony knew that women could be just as formidable as men, and this person being female did not automatically mean she wasn’t a threat. It’s just that the voice wasn’t what he was expecting. The red, metal suit had no other indications of her gender (which meant whoever built the thing was smart. Boob cups on armor were always pretty useless.)

Tony stood across from the young woman, his visor down, suit on, and he had Jarvis analyse the interloper’s suit. It appeared to be a titanium alloy, very similar to the one he used in all of his own suits. Impressive, if not a little concerning. Maybe, like Pepper said, he had been a little too forthcoming about this whole Iron Man business.

“Nice suit. I’d be a little impressed, if I hadn’t come up with it first,” Tony said to the young lady in the metal suit in front of him.

“Are you really Tony Stark?” she asked, as if she couldn’t quite believe it. Tony wasn’t sure what to make of the question.

“Where’d you get the suit? Black market? I’d be careful, if I were you. Most copycat attempts don’t end well for the test pilot,” Tony replied, avoiding her question. It wasn’t that he was afraid to answer. Maybe he just thought that if he did, he might have to face why she was really there. What he didn’t expect was for the girl to open the visor. And she really was a girl. Young, African-American… young. The girl looked no older than 16 or 17, her eyes earnest and full of wonder.

“I thought you… You quit being Iron Man, right? I heard you quit,” the girl said, her eyes, a hazel brown, staring at Tony in genuine confusion. He had quit. Quite ceremoniously, in fact; exploding nearly every suit he owned.

“I didn’t quit. I retired,” he retorted, his visor still down.

“You blew up all the Iron Man suits. It was all over the news,” the girl said, taking a step towards him.

“And yet, you still managed to get your hands on one. Well, an inferior replica,” he said, quietly running a facial recognition on the young lady. The girl, however, scoffed, her metal clad hands clinking against her metal clad waist.

“Inferior? I designed and built this thing from scratch and it works just as well as any of yours,” she challenged him.

“Sir, her name is Lena Owens. She’s a robotics student at NYU Tandon,” Jarvis informed Tony, pulling up her school ID. Tony nodded a little.

“Thank you, Jarvis. Look. Lena? Is it? Your little science experiment or whatever is cool. You got it to fly, good for you. But you’re sorta trespassing, here, and I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” Tony replied.

“How did you know my name?” she asked, taken aback.

“Facial recognition software. Found your school records. NYU? 3.9 GPA,” Tony rattled off.

“What? It’s 4.0,” she argued.

“Not what it says, here,”

“Since when?” she challenged him, her brows lifting.

“Look, kid, you can either leave the easy way, or I can escort you out,” Tony said plainly.

“No, wait! I-”

“Escort it is,” Tony said, and before the girl could even react, he’d picked her up and flown her beyond the balcony. Quickly, the girl closed her visor, struggling against Tony’s grasp.

“No, wait! Let go! I need to talk to you,” she argued.

“You haven’t been talking?” Tony retorted, pulling up directions to the NYU Tandon building.

“Let me go!” she fussed.

“I let you go, now, you drop,” he challenged her.

“My suit flies, dude,” she scoffed, but he stayed the course. The girl stopped struggling, crossing her metal arms. “Where are you taking me? Just put me on the ground.”

“Tandon,” he replied.

“I don’t live there, genius,” she argued.

“You don’t? I lived in the lab when I was at M.I.T.,”

“Maybe I don’t need to, to be as good as you,” she argued.

“It’s cute that you think you’re as good as me,” he said.

“I grew up middle class and taught myself how to build functioning robots before high school. You grew up the super rich son of Howard Stark,” Lena retorted. “I’m probably better than you, if we’re honest.”

“Okay, impressive,” he admitted. “I dunno about better…”

“Look, I need your help, okay? The Avengers,” she said. “Can we just… can we land somewhere?” Tony considered it for a moment. He let out a sigh, deciding to at least hear the kid out.

“Jarvis, find us a place to land. Private,” he said.

“Scanning rooftops, sir,” Jarvis replied. Jarvis showed Tony a comprehensive list of all the rooftops in the area, picking a nice unfinished one for them to land on. So, Tony took them down. When they landed, he set the girl down gently.

“Okay, what do you need my help with?” he said, his visor coming up for the first time. The girl followed suit, opening hers, her eyes filled with awe. Tony sighed, rolling his eyes a little. “Alright, yes, I’m Tony Stark. Wow, amazing.”

“Sorry. It’s just, you’re my... idol. Seeing you in person,” she said softly.

“What’s the problem?” Tony pushed, though mostly because he was just curious as to why this girl decided to bring her charade all the way to Avengers Tower.

“Oh. Right… So, for the past few months, after completing my suit, I’ve been going around the city, stopping crime,” she admitted. “Nothing big. Small stuff, mostly.”

“You’re the reason for those ‘Iron Man stopped my mugger’ rumors,” Tony interrupted.

“I guess. Sorry,” she winced.

“No, it’s cool. I like that people feel safe,”

“Yeah… but they won’t be safe if the Avengers don’t…. I stumbled across something. Something kinda bad,” she said.

“Bad like how?”

“I’m not sure. There’s this organization… as far as I can tell, they call themselves ‘The Hand,’” she said, her eyes suddenly fearful. She bit her pinkish lips, her eyes dropping away from Tony. “There was this kidnapping case. I thought I’d have to, just, like… fly in, rescue this kid, and leave. But… it was awful. They called him the Black Sky. They have these… people. Who aren’t just your regular bad guys. Like, they’re… almost superhuman. If it wasn’t for the suit, I’d probably be dead.”

“Kidnapping? So, why didn’t you call the police?” Tony asked. As bad as that sounded, it didn’t seem like a job for the Avengers.

“The police don’t stand a chance. The guy I faced could kill a regular person in seconds,” she replied.

“I’m sorry. You went to rescue a kidnapped kid-”

“Yes,”

“And you ran into a superhuman who can kill a regular person in seconds,” Tony continued. Lena nodded. “And, this is why we leave the superheroing to the superheroes, Ms. Owens.”

“A superhero is just someone who has the opportunity to help people who can’t help themselves, Mr. Stark. I have that opportunity to help the community. It wouldn’t be right for me not to. How was I supposed to know that I’d run into something like that? I just wanted to stop rapists and thieves and murderers… and give people hope that Iron Man didn’t abandon them,” Lena said, impassioned and convinced by her own mission. It was noble, but naive.

“When you put on a suit and go out there trying to be a hero on this scale, stuff like that finds you. That’s why people like me and the other Avengers train, that’s why we sacrifice. You can’t just put on a suit and call yourself Iron Man-”

“You did,” she challenged him.

“I did because I had to. And as soon as I became Iron Man, trouble followed. Do you understand that?” he scolded the girl.

“I’m not going to stop,” she said, her eyes glaring at him. “And if you won’t help me, I’ll just take down The Hand, myself.”

“Do what you gotta do, kid,” he said.

“Oh, just so you know? I think they’re planning to destroy Manhattan. They said something about finding the Black Sky so that they can begin the reckoning,” she said, closing her visor.

“Wait. Destroy Manhattan? I thought you said it was a kidnapping case,” Tony said.

“Do you listen?”

“... Tell me more about this ‘Hand’,”

After Adventure w/ the Avengers & Daredevil foiling this Hand plot

Tony felt bad seeing the girl’s injuries. It looked like it really hurt. But she fought like a champion, and Tony even felt that she might be Avengers material. If she wanted to be. With her permission, they stood side by side as they worked to repair the damage to her suit. It really had been well built, with very similar structure to one of Tony’s earlier models. She’d reverse engineered a lot of it from pictures and videos of suit function, as well as analyses on fan boards. She really was an impressive girl.

“How old are you, anyway?” Tony asked as he quietly upgraded the girl’s suit with a functioning arc reactor.

“Nineteen,” she said.

“I gotta say, Lena. I’m impressed, I really am,” he commented.

“That means a lot. Especially coming from you,” she smiled, looking up at him as if he were truly a god. It made Tony think of a few Thor jokes, but he wasn’t sure if they’d make sense if he said them out loud. “Cool, an arc reactor? Yeah, I couldn’t figure that part out.”

“I made my own element-”

“Made your own element. I know,” she chuckled, saying it at the same time as him. “My power source was pretty clean and well functioning. I designed a tiny Tesla coil that would react to the sun, and store solar energy in a battery. The problem was that I could never get my repulsors to function as powerfully as yours do.”

“They will, now,” Tony said. “By the way, the amethyst crystals were a good way to concentrate the beam, but they’re not useful for converting electrons into muons, which is also why your repulsors weren’t as strong. I updated them for you.”

“Can I have my crystals back, though? I grew them,” she replied.

“I don’t care. Do whatever you want with them,” Tony muttered, examining her helmet. “This could also use some shock absorbtion. I’m surprised you’re not always concussed.”

“Mr. Stark?”

“Don’t get me wrong. This suit is very well made. How’d you fund it?”

“Grants, mostly. Ordered the material through school. Mr. Stark-”

“Imagine what you could do with unlimited resources,” he smiled at her, but the look in her eyes gave him pause. “What?”

“... There’s something I should tell you. I guess,” she started.

“Uh oh. Am I in trouble?” he asked jokingly.

“I mean, I don’t even know if it’s true. I mean, I have no way of knowing other than what I’ve been told, but-” the girl rambled, her hazel eyes faltering.

“Lena, what is it?” he had to admit, his heart was starting to race. The girl’s curly dark hair was a mess of a floppy afro, falling into her face as she held her eyes downcast, afraid to look at him. Tony wasn’t always the best judge of people’s demeanor, but this seemed like maybe bad news.

“I mean, all I know is what I’ve been told. I guess, I do have a way of knowing, but… that is to say, I guess I have to tell you what I’ve been told, first. Right?” she said, refusing to look up at him. Okay. What she said next, Tony admitted, had crossed his mind maybe for a split second, the first time he saw the girl. It crossed his mind, but just as soon as it did, he put it out of his mind, because it didn’t seem realistic. Then again, nothing in Tony’s life had ever been something one could honestly call “realistic.” So, when she said it, it almost didn’t register, for a moment. It felt like he was making it up in his mind. “Part of the reason… I came here is… becauseIthinkyoumightbemyfather.”

He stared at her for a moment, after she said it. Maybe a moment too long. He stared, and she froze, her light brown face pinkish as her hazel eyes crept to look at him. He was staring too hard and too long, and he knew it, but he couldn’t really think of any good way to respond. Which is probably why he just said-

“I’m sorry, what?” he said, his face stoic and unchanged. She glanced up at him, then looked away quickly, anxiety all over her face.

“I know… I’m sorry. It’s… it’s probably not true,” she said. “I just, I don’t know why she would tell me that. You know?”

“Your… your mom told you I’m your father?” he asked.

“I mean. She didn’t tell me. I don’t think she was going to ever tell me,” Lena started, cautiously looking up at him. “But… then, she was sick, and… I think she wanted me to know, before she… I mean, I asked her so many times, and she-”

“She told you I’m your father?”

“Yes,”

“‘Tony Stark’? She said ‘Tony Stark is your father’?” he asked again, the thought feeling more absurd than not.

“It’s probably not true. I’ve been trying to figure out why she would say that for the past two years. All I can come up with is, maybe, because she knows how much I admire you, and she… wanted me to think my dad was this great man,” Lena explained, her eyes apologetic. “It’s… it’s probably not true, so…”

“She- she’s… did she pass away?” Tony asked, staring at the girl as if she was some sort of ghost. Lena nodded. “... I’m… I’m sorry. I-”

“It’s okay. I shouldn’t have, um…”

“Who… what was her name? Your Mom,” Tony asked. Lena glanced at him, smiling a little.

“Adele. She, um… she used to be a model. She said she used to get invited to your parties all the time, and that’s how she met you,” Lena shook her head. “But, I dunno. She used to tell me all kinds of stories… about celebrities she met and hung out with. I don’t know what’s true and what’s legend. She was always telling stories.”

“Adele… Owens?” Tony asked, his mind vaguely recalling a beautiful brown girl with long hair that he met back in the early 90s. He was young, then, and used a lot of the partying and drinking to cope with the death of his parents. And the girls. Oh, the girls. There were quite a few of them, at that time. It embarrassed Tony that he couldn’t tell the girl that Adele was more special to him than she was, but he did like her. He remembered her being funny, which stood out from some of the other girls he’d spend time with. He remembered seeing her when he wanted to laugh.

“Duh. Lena Owens… no father… my last name would probably be hers,” Lena chuckled, smiling softly. “You don’t have to remember her. It’s okay. She said there were a lot of girls, and she wasn’t your girlfriend.”

“No, I do remember her. She wanted to be the next Naomi Campbell, and always made bad puns featuring my name,” Tony smiled at the memory, until the realization came crashing down on him that he was standing next to Adele Owens’ daughter, who was maybe his.

“Yeah, she loved puns. Got my fair share of dad jokes,” Lena chuckled.

“Adele’s dead…” Tony looked at the girl. He didn’t know what he was expecting to see, but he looked at her, looked for some kind of recognizable trait in her face. Which… felt kind of silly. He didn’t know what he was expecting to see. Some kind of sign hung on her forehead that read ‘Hi, I’m a Stark’ or something.

“I’m sorry…” Lena frowned. “I really didn’t think you’d remember her.”

“Time out. If I’m your father, why didn’t Adele just tell me?” he questioned.

“She said you didn’t know each other like that, and she was scared,” Lena replied, wincing a little. “I dunno. She was young, man.”

“Yeah, but I probably would’ve just… I mean, I wouldn’t have left her hanging. I’m not a bad guy.”

“You kinda were. Sorry…” Lena said calmly. “I mean, now, you’re a gem, but I’m, like, a Tony Stark encyclopedia. You were known for being the bad boy of science. You built weapons of mass destruction, slept with multiple women and almost never called them again or returned their calls, you made … obnoxious statements to the media, drank too much, made a spectacle of yourself, and you definitely did not make yourself easily accessible to the girls you… invited to parties… other than when you wanted to see them for a good time. She had every reason to be scared of you.”

“Not if she was carrying my child!” Tony yelled, stopping himself as soon as he did. Everything the girl said about him was true; he knew it was; but it was still painful to hear. And the worst part about it all was that he wasn’t really sure how to cope with an Iron Baby literally being dropped on his doorstep nineteen years later. He wasn’t sure how he was allowed to react. He needed a moment to process this. Taking a step away from the workstation he and Lena had been standing at, Tony took a deep breath, his hands running through his dark hair.

“Well. Maybe she wasn’t. She probably just told me that to make me feel better,” Lena said softly. “... And I really shouldn’t have told you without some sort of confirmation.”

“Do you really think your mother would use her dying breath to lie to you about who your father is?” Tony looked at her, his eyes stern. Lena shrunk back a little.

“I mean, it wasn’t her dying breath,” she said. Tony just stared at her. He stared at her face as she glanced shyly at him, as she gave him an uncertain smile. She looked like his mother. Brown, sure. Maybe he could even see some of Adele’s features in her. But she did; she looked like Maria Stark. He rubbed a hand over his goatee, shaking the thought out of his head. Maybe she didn’t. Maybe he was just letting the power of suggestion take over. Or maybe the thought of having a nearly twenty year old kid terrified him.

“Just… forget I said anything. It’s probably not true.”

“DNA test,” Tony said, snapping his fingers. “Jarvis?”

“I need Ms. Owens’s consent before I can collect a DNA sample,” Jarvis said. Lena, disgust on her face, looked around for the disembodied voice.

“What the fuck? What happened to a cotton swab of the cheek?” she scoffed. Tony shook his head. “How the hell is your AI gonna collect a DNA sample?”

“Lena. Hair. Cheek swab. Fingernails, I dunno. A vial of blood. Volunteer something,” Tony snapped; he didn’t really mean to snap. Lena stared at him for a moment, apprehension in her eyes.

“Uh… Jarvis, what would you prefer?” Lena asked the AI.

“If you’re comfortable with a cheek swab, that would work quite well, Ms. Owens,” Jarvis replied.

“Uh… yeah, let’s do that,” Lena nodded, glancing at Tony.

****

“It’s kinda like an episode of Maury,” Pepper said, standing in the doorway as Tony stared obsessively at the holoscreen results of Jarvis’ DNA profiles of both him and Lena. He didn’t respond to Pepper’s ribbing. He was still trying to find a margin of error in the results. “So… what’s the reveal?”

“Pepper,” Tony muttered.

“I’m your daughter?” she teased. Tony glared at her. “Sheesh. Tough room, tonight.”

“What do you want, Ms. Potts?”

“Ms. Potts?” Pepper was sort of taken aback by Tony’s tone. Sure, this was big, but she didn’t think Tony Stark, of all people, would react so emotionally to this Lena situation. Or, maybe, she didn’t think Lena would end up being his. She realized, in that moment, that she must’ve been. “Tony-”

“I guess I should call the kid,” Tony said. “She’ll probably be happy.”

“... Congratulations,” Pepper said, walking to the man and placing her hand on his shoulder.

“Hm.”

“Tony. Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah, she’s a great kid,” he nodded, his eyes staring at the results. 99.9% chance of paternity. He glanced at Pepper, flashed her a smile, then closed out the holoscreen.

“Are you sure?” Pepper asked, her eyes studying Tony’s face.

“... You’re not upset?”

“Why should I be upset at something you did 20 years ago?” Pepper smiled at him. He sighed, his feet carrying him to the window. Pepper watched as he stared out of it distantly, his hand rubbing at his goatee. “Tony… are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah. I mean… I totally missed out on every part of my daughter’s life. And I didn’t even know I had any living relatives until earlier today. Other than that.”

“Well… you can be a part of her life, now,” Pepper offered, giving him his space.

“Pepper, she’s an adult,” he said, his voice low.

“I know. But… it’s not too late to have a relationship with her. I mean, you didn’t want to raise a child, anyway,” she teased.

“I would’ve raised her,” he snapped, turning to Pepper. There were tears in his eyes. “Hell, she probably would’ve helped raise me. I wasted so much time being a playboy, not giving a shit about anyone or anything, and I had a little girl out there, growing up without a daddy, who I could’ve been there for. We needed each other, Pepper. And I didn’t even know she existed.”

“I know. I can’t imagine how you must feel, right now,” Pepper offered, empathy in her eyes.

“Is it bad that I’m kinda furious at Adele? I mean, she’s dead, Pepper, and I’m kinda furious at her,” Tony chuckled dryly. “She could’ve told me. Yeah, I was a piece of shit, but she could’ve given me the option to try not to be. And I would’ve, for Lena. I wouldn’t have let her grow up like that. I would’ve given her everything, Pepper! And she’s so fucking smart. Imagine what she could’ve done with my resources.”

“You can still give her everything, Tony. She’s nineteen, she still needs you,” Pepper said, unsure of what to really say. Tony shook his head a little, and then he covered his eyes. He stood, frozen, for just a moment. He was crying. Pepper sighed, and she walked over to him, engulfing him in her arms. “Tony… you can still give her everything.”

“I just feel like it’s my fault,” he cried, his arms sliding around Pepper for support. His face burrowing into her shoulder. “If I wasn’t a piece of shit-”

“Thinking like that isn’t going to help,” she said softly, holding him.

“It’s probably my fault, Pepper. I remember… I tried to call Adele, once. And her number was disconnected, so I just… I called someone else. That was the last time I tried to contact her. She was having my kid, and I just… called someone else,” Tony said, pulling out of Pepper’s arms and wiping his face. He looked a little embarrassed, so Pepper hugged him, anyway. “I need to call Lena.”

“Call in the morning. Take some time to collect your thoughts,” Pepper suggested. Tony looked at her, his eyes reddish from crying, and he kissed her softly.

“You’re right. I can’t call her like this,” he said, shaking his head, a hand running through Pepper’s hair.

“I need you to understand that what happened happened, and there’s nothing you can do to change it. What you can do is decide what your relationship to your daughter is going to be from this moment on. Okay? No guilt, no shame… just what’s best for you, and what’s best for Lena,” she said, looking into his eyes. Tony nodded. “Okay?”

“Yeah,” he muttered. Pepper smiled.

“Big baby. You should be happy,” she chuckled, hitting his chest playfully. Tony smiled a little.

“I am… did you see the suit she built?” he chuckled. “She’s a genius.”

“She’s a Stark,” Pepper offered. Tony smiled a little, nodding.

“Yeah… yeah, she is.”


End file.
